Toby Carvery in Lincoln closed permanently on 28 February 2026, leaving St Mark’s Shopping Centre without a sit-down restaurant. Aberdeen Investments, which owns the site, has invested more than £80 million there since 2017. The money went on student flats.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Status | Permanently closed |
| Closure date | 28 February 2026 |
| Final service | Breakfast only, doors shut at noon |
| Address | 11 St Mark’s Square, Lincoln, LN5 7BD |
| Parent company | Mitchells & Butlers plc |
Table of Contents
When Did Toby Carvery Lincoln Close?
The restaurant at 11 St Mark’s Square informed customers of its closure via social media in mid-February 2026.
“We regret to inform you that we will be permanently closing at 12:00pm on Saturday, 28th February. We kindly ask for your understanding during this time. Our team are working hard to maintain the level of service you expect under the current circumstances. A special thank you to our team for all their hard work throughout the years and especially at this current time. We couldn’t have achieved all we have without your dedication.”
On its final morning, the restaurant served breakfast only and closed at noon. There was no carvery service that day.
A Toby Carvery spokesperson confirmed staff were being consulted about possible redeployment to other nearby Mitchells & Butlers businesses. The company said “this decision has been taken after careful consideration and as part of the continual review of our estate.”
The BBC reported the closure on 9 February 2026, more than a week before the restaurant’s own announcement reached customers. Aberdeen Investments had confirmed the departure to the broadcaster while it was working on a wider story about vacancy rates at St Mark’s Shopping Centre in Lincoln.
Which Major Businesses Have Left St Mark’s in Lincoln?
St Mark’s Shopping Centre opened in 1996 on the site of the former St Mark’s railway station in Lincoln city centre. Over the following two decades, most of its anchor tenants left.
Businesses that have departed St Mark’s:
- Debenhams
- Argos
- Mothercare
- Toys R Us
- Homebase
- Lidl
- Topps Tiles
- Burger King
Sports Direct, JD Sports, and Caffe Nero are among the remaining tenants. Toby Carvery was the last full restaurant in the building when it closed.
Aberdeen Investments said it is “continuing to see vacancy rates increase” and acknowledged there has been “little demand from retailers to replace” those who have left. The company cited “decades of UK economic shocks and upheaval” as the broader context.
What Did Aberdeen Investments Build With £80 Million?
In 2017, Aberdeen Investments received planning approval for a £150 million mixed-use redevelopment of St Mark’s. The plans covered a wide range of uses.
What the 2017 plan included:
- New retail and leisure units
- A hotel
- Residential flats
- Multi-storey car park
- Student accommodation
What has been built:
- 1,300 student rooms, costing more than £80 million
The hotel, new retail and leisure units, and the additional residential development remain unbuilt eight years on. Aberdeen describes itself as “not standing still,” pointing to the student accommodation and a leisure unit investment as evidence of activity. The company adds it is “continuing to assess future demand and viability from a range of future options.”
What has not been publicly addressed is how 1,300 student residents are expected to sustain the commercial activity the remaining units at St Mark’s depend on. Students, as a broad consumer group, are significantly less likely to use high street retail or sit-down restaurants than the general shopper base those units were designed for. Converting large areas of a city centre retail site into student housing changes who is in the area, and that changes the business case for staying.
Katrina Pierce, of the Lincolnshire Federation of Small Businesses, described the practical reality at St Mark’s directly:
“The footprint of those shops like Debenhams and Toys R Us are massive. If national retailers are withdrawing from those kind of sizes of businesses, your average local independent isn’t going to be in a position to take them on.”
Was the Toby Carvery Closure in Lincoln About the Company Struggling?
Mitchells & Butlers, the Birmingham-based group that owns Toby Carvery alongside Harvester, Miller & Carter, and All Bar One, was in its strongest financial position in years when the Lincoln restaurant closed.
| Period | Revenue | Pre-Tax Profit | Like-for-Like Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Year 2025 | £2.71 billion | £238 million (+19.5%) | +4.3% |
| Half Year 2026 | £1.49 billion | £143 million | +3.3% |
Guest satisfaction scores across the brand portfolio reached a record 4.7 out of 5 in the first half of 2026. Chief executive Phil Urban called it “another robust performance.”
As recently as April 2025, the Lincoln branch was still advertising a Chef Apprenticeship at 11 St Mark’s Square on the government’s apprenticeship finder. There was no public indication of difficulty at the restaurant in the months before its closure was announced.
Toby Carvery operates around 150 restaurants across the UK. In May 2026, the chain also closed its Romford branch at The Brewery Shopping Centre after 40 years, handing the site back to its landlord. Both involved shopping centre locations where the surrounding retail environment had declined significantly.
Mitchells & Butlers closed the Lincoln restaurant as part of a wider estate review, not under financial pressure. A profitable company assessed a shopping centre with rising vacancies, an unfinished regeneration plan, and a shifting footfall base, and decided the location was no longer commercially viable.
UK Restaurant Closures: The 2026 Backdrop
The Lincoln closure comes at a difficult time for the restaurant sector across the UK.
Research commissioned by UKHospitality found that 963 restaurants are forecast to close in 2026 without government relief from April’s business rates increases. Average pub rates have risen 76% over three years. Hotels have seen a 115% increase over the same period.
Those figures reflect the pressure on the UK hospitality sector broadly. In Lincoln, the more specific cause sits with a landlord’s decade of decisions on one site.
What Is Left at St Mark’s Shopping Centre in Lincoln?
St Mark’s now has no sit-down restaurant following the Toby Carvery closure. The tenants that remain serve a narrower range of purposes than the centre was built to support.
Aberdeen Investments says future options for the site are still under review. Nine years since planning approval, the hotel and new commercial units included in the 2017 redevelopment plan have not been built. No replacement for Lincoln’s last restaurant at St Mark’s has been announced.
